I have had Sleep Apnea for years. I have tried both cpap and bipap and neither one has worked. I am still trying to find out how to beat this.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Can cpap restore brain tissue?

When I first read this headline while surfing the net I couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t think that anything could reverse the loss of brain tissue, but apparently there is validity to this claim.

There was a study done in Italy with half the people with sleep apnea and the other half without. At the beginning of the test it was determined that the sleep apnea group had less gray matter, then the group that didn’t have sleep apnea. This isn’t anything new people who have studied sleep apnea for years have been talking about how this condition not only affects your heart and your energy but also your mind. The thought that this condition could somehow be reversed is quite remarkable.

What is gray matter?

Gray matter is composed of cell bodies of nerves in the brain. The amount of gray matter can depend on heredity as well as environment. While it is believed by some people that intelligence depends solely on the volume of gray matter, in reality it only plays a part in how high your IQ is.

What did the study show?

It took about three months before the cpap helped increase the gray matter in the brain of those with sleep apnea. However after a year of treatment there wasn’t any more increase in gray matter.

This is certainly wonderful news to anyone who uses a cpap to control their sleep apnea.